Hi I am Jon and I have acquired a few boomboxes, great fun, the sharp gf9696 radio will only work if I press play on the tape mechanism first, so to make the radio work I press play without a tape inside, with the selector on radio, Seems like radio only gets power when I do this, anyone got any ideas how to fix this?!
Very nice boombox, those GF Series have evaded me. I'd tell you to DeOxit the RADIO/TAPE switch but that box has separate buttons, it does sound like one of the buttons might be sticking in the record off the radio mode. I have zero experience with this model, I'd crack it open and clean all the moving switches, DeOxit for switches, FaderLube for the sliders. Cassette2go will tell you to clean the record bar when it's open, the bar under the record switch connected to something internally. I've got enough boomboxes that I only do the easy stuff and it works 90% of the time, my poor Hitachi 3D has been on the workbench for a year while tracing power around it, I really need to spend some quality time with it and zipper it back together.
In case you don't have it, here's the service manual, I've downloaded from this site, I think it's safe.... https://www.manualslib.com/manual/998622/Sharp-Gf-9696.html
Check all the controls for a "Sleep" switch. If it has one and is in the off position it might still be dirty. Someone had that problem with a box last month and the eventual solution was to clean the switch.
thanks for the replies, haven't got to it yet! acquired a couple of sharp gf5858e actually one is gf5959e (same except has amp output), and both tape players click and click when you press play, and won't stay down, I think its the auto stop, not sure, small piece of plastic near there fly wheel, does anyone know if the grease could be an issue? it looks white and does not seem hard? if I get the small plastic thing in the right place it seems to be ok, but then starts doing the same thing again when I put the plate back on.
Did you ever repair yours? On one of my sharps I found a pin when it's broken off of the slider plates that was attached to the push button plastic part and that pin interlocked with the rest of the mechanism and because it was broke off it would no longer latch whatever position button you were pushing because the pin was simply broken off. The reason why I'm here is that I have a 9696 and a GF 505sb that needs a new motor, whereas I took the motor out of the these 505 SB and put it into the 9696 to make it work and then I found another 505st for sale for cheap across the shipping was four times the price of what I paid for the radio and when I get finished with the other radio I'm working on and I will open that box up and hopefully have a good motor to replace into the 505sb and then I'll have the $96.96 and the 555 SB working playing cassettes. Yay.
This is a generic picture from a sharp GF 305 I think and then let me get you the other one Again, another generic picture from the sharp gf305 copied from the Wikipedia boomboxes page for that model. Reason why I'm posting these here is because it explains what the buttons do. Your sharp gf9696 should have the buttons laid out in this manner. You need to select the radio FM or am and then the power switch and that will turn on the radio without having to press the buttons on the cassette deck. Otherwise, if the power button is not on then the tape deck will operate without the power switch being depressed. Hope you can understand that. 10th July 2024 so it's been 2 months where you been? Thanks. Hope this helps you. Ps decentman4you2007@gmail.com or you can send me an email and I'll answer any questions. I'm in Dallas, Texas. So good day.
This is my GF 9696 for reference. It works cassette radio everything except for the echo on the front that doesn't do anything.
I just put it back on the shelf. It's slightly sticking out right now along with a few others that you might recognize. Everything has been repaired that you can see on the shelf except for maybe four of them that I might need to go back through. And no, I haven't repaired the tascam yet.
